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Broomhall residents spoke of street tension weeks before murder
WORRIED residents spoke of growing tensions on the streets on Broomhall weeks ago - and said they were too afraid to even leave their homes.
A public meeting was held in the community last month when residents claimed tensions between Somalians and Jamaicans had escalated out of control and groups of youths were walking the streets armed with weapons.
The rivalry appears to have erupted last night leaving one man dead and three others injured.
Chief Superintendent Paul Broadbent said today: "I believe at this moment in time that this is related to criminality. I don't know whether it is organised crime."
Sheffield Central MP Richard Caborn said police and community workers had been working to try to calm the tensions.
The MP, whose constituency covers Broomhall, said: "This is unacceptable, it's something alien to Sheffield, it needs rooting out, and it needs anyone with information to come to the police. The vast majority of people in Sheffield abhor this activity.
"The danger is that it becomes an acceptable part of life. We have never had the serious crime levels of other parts of the country in Sheffield and our proud of our record of keeping crime below the national average.
"We need to redouble our efforts to make sure we do not have repetitions."
Residents today spoke of gangs on their streets and rising friction between the different factions.
Al Hussain, aged 34, said: "I do see gangs hanging about on the street. They look innocent enough - but because they are obviously in gangs I suppose anything can happen."
One woman resident said: "There's a lot of good in the area, with a strong sense of community spirit and lots of community events, but you do get large groups congregating because there is an amount of ghettoisation."
At a public meeting held in Broomhall on Thursday June 11 police admitted officers had been called in to deal with incidents involving youngsters on the streets with bats and lengths of wood.
There had also been a series of assaults in the run up to the public meeting, with residents claiming they had been left terrified to leave their homes.
Extra police were called in to patrol the streets to deal with issues as they were breaking out before and to try to reassure local residents of their safety.
Trouble also erupted in June last year, when dozens of extra police officers were called in to patrol the streets after rival gangs of young Somali and Afro-Caribbean men clashed in a drug-related turf war.
It culminated in the stabbing of a youth.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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